Image sensor technologies fall into two main categories: charge coupled devices (CCD) and CMOS image sensors. The advantages of each have been well documented. For example, CMOS image sensors have advantages with respect to power consumption, manufacturing costs, and circuit integration. Still, CCDs maintain advantages in certain high-end applications.
There have been attempts to integrate the two technologies so that an image sensor would have the advantages of both. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,210 purports to combine commonly used pinned photodiode technology from CCD image sensors with CMOS controlled circuitry.
The present invention combines aspects of CCD technology into a CMOS image sensor.